Recycled content is when a site owner takes content from another location, usually rewords it and posts to their site as if it was their own. This practice is most used for mini-sites and blogs.

Is this practice ok?
Within reason, yes.

Mini-Sites
I have several mini-sites that I have definitely done this with. A perfect example would be a poker site of mine.  The site provides information on how to play games like Texas Holdem and Omaha. Using my site as the example, there are only so many ways I can write an informational piece on Texas Holdem and make it understandable.

Blog
I am sure I have used this for news, again, how many ways can you report the same story. I cannot say that I have used this for my blog articles. I may get an idea or believe something to be useful to my readers by visiting other blogs. In those situations, I will normally test out what I have read and create a new article based on my experiences.

I have two words for those that recycle content, public domain. Public domain is a term for intellectual properties not owned by anyone. The full definition is way to long, visit Wikipedia for the full version. From what I was recently told anything written before 1923 is considered public domain. You can actually take an entire book written before 1923 and resell, reword, retitle or anything else you want and call it your own. Before using this technique please do your own research, I visited a site called copylaw.com.

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The number one challenge for any blogger is their ability to write quality articles on a consistent basis. Sure it’s easy enough to throw some words up and call that a blog post but that provides zero value and will more than likely cost you readers.

I myself have found it a struggle to make the time to blog. Not that I don’t enjoy writing or have the information to pass along but more so because of time. My old method of blog writing was to wake up, usually around 11am and think of a topic to write about for that days post. I would find myself  halfway through an article and realize I’m not giving myself enough time to write or research everything needed. The last thing I want to do is put out a garbage post. I would delete what I had so far and tell myself I will write later tonight and post it for the next day. That just does not work, at least for me.

My new plan…
Some days I feel better than others and to be honest I’m not in a mood to write every day. I have come to realize the days I’m feeling in a funk, it is better not to write. What I have decided to do from this point forward is to write several posts when I’m feeling great. This actually does a couple things, it assures top quality articles are being produced and will also save me time throughout the week. Instead of writing an hour a day I may spend four hours in a single day and write posts for the entire week. This may or may not work for everyone. My blog is more personal, it’s about my experiences trying to make money online, blogging and domaining. For others your blog may revolve around reporting the news, something I rarely do nowadays. I have no urge to report the news on a daily basis. For those of you that do though you have to report daily. When a new story breaks you have to get it online before the other guys do. Instead for myself what I have thought about doing is posting a recap of that weeks news. More than likely I’ll do it in a video blog and capture all of the headlines from the week.

In closing, if you are in the mood to write then just keep writing. Don’t limit yourself to writing one article, write multiple articles and save some for a rainy day.

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Do you consider your blog a business? I do, although I thoroughly enjoy this it is still a business that needs to produce income.

One of the essential elements of owning a business is branding. Today I want to specificity discuss branding a blog.

I’m going to share what I believe to be two different aspects of branding.

Brand
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

It is my belief that I have achieved this with Chef Patrick. Something catchy, unique and easy to remember. It is to the point now where people call me Chef or Chef Patrick, which by the way I am not a cook.

“Sellable” Brand
The ability to take a brand and package it for sale.

The main ingredient for creating a brand is a domain name. As I have already stated I believe I have achieved a brand with Chef Patrick but, I have failed in creating a SELLABLE brand. I would essentially have to find another Patrick to sell my blog.

When picking your domain name I want you to seriously take into consideration your future plans and possible goals. If creating a brand, something sellable then do not use your personal name. Take into consideration what your main topic will be and find a domain name that matches.

Just to give you a few examples…
If you are wanting to create a domaining video blog then go with something like DNVideoBlogger.com. It sends a clear message that if you come to this site you are going to see someone video blogging about domain names. Passionate about trains, how about LocomotiveNews.com. Maybe you love celebrity gossip, CelebrityBlabber.com is a perfect fit.

By the way I do own the example domain names so if you are interested in one just send me an email.

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